Uconn

At one point during the UConn women's basketball season, coach Geno Auriemma said that if the Huskies won the national championship, athletic trainer Rosemary Ragle and the rest of the medical staff should be considered among the team's MVPs.

One of those staff members, student assistant athletic trainer Andreya Cracco of Waterbury, earned herself a seat on the Huskies' bench during the Final Four in New Orleans. She not only got to watch the Huskies celebrate the program's eighth national championship, she took part in the bedlam.

"I grew up a fan of UConn basketball since I started watching it probably in second grade," Cracco said. "It was a real surreal moment to be on the floor with the players and the coaching staff as everyone was celebrating. It was a crazy moment. The managers and Rosemary and I let the team have their own moments, but they were hugging and high-fiving everyone. Everyone was just ecstatic."

The Holy Cross High graduate spent this season shadowing Ragle and then working tirelessly at her side as the Huskies persevered through countless injuries.

The medical issues started in the preseason with Bria Hartley's severe ankle sprain and ended with Stefanie Dolson's postseason ankle stress fracture and plantar fasciitis. In between, Breanna Stewart,

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Brianna Banks, Morgan Tuck, Caroline Doty, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Kiah Stokes all missed at least one game and plenty of practice time due to injuries.

"We are constantly working with the players, and it is not all ice bags and Band-Aids," Cracco said. "We would do rehab treatments before and after games and practices. (There is) a lot more than anyone would think goes into it, but the girls are 100 percent dedicated to whatever we tell them to do, and they trust us."

Cracco said it was an incredibly rewarding experience helping the players cope with their setbacks, both physically and emotionally.

"As part of your job as an athletic trainer, you (think), 'This person is probably not very happy right now; how can I help swing her around and try to get her back to that right mental state to do the rebhab and be able to play?'" Cracco said. "When you are dealing with them at times like that, you really get to see that they are great people."

Cracco, a junior at UConn, had plenty of opportunity to really get to know the players well. She worked with the team six days per week in addition to taking classes. The dedication she showed eventually earned her the right to go to the Final Four.

"I gained the trust of Rosemary, and she let me do whatever needed to be done," Cracco said. "I would help develop a program for what we were going to do each day for rehab and taping and we would go out and do it."

She said on the road, she helped Ragle turn her hotel room into a trainer's room where they could rehab players throughout the day to get them ready for the biggest stage in the sport.

"I do feel like I contributed," Cracco said. "There is definitely pressure that goes with this, because it is such a high-caliber team with so much on the line and you have to make sure the players are ready to play as close to 100 percent as possible. I take a lot of pride in knowing all the effort and energy put into their rehab and getting them back to play."

The experience has her leaning toward becoming an athletic trainer at a Division I college after she completes graduate school. She's keeping an open mind, however, as she will spend this summer as one of 16 student athletic trainers working at Disney's Wide World of Sports.

For now, she's just going to let her Final Four experience linger.

"It was just a surreal moment," Cracco said. "I was at Holy Cross for all the championships we had there and stuff, but being on a stage this big with all the fans there and knowing so many people back at home were watching, it was just amazing."

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